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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Trent Franks' bill to restrict any abortions that may be requested for the purpose of "sex selection" failed to gain a 2/3 majority in the House of Representatives this afternoon. It received a 246-168 majority, far short of the 290 votes that would have moved it on to the Senate.

Not surprisingly, the bill was overwhelmingly (226-7) favored by Republicans and nearly-as-overwhelmingly (20-161) opposed by Democrats. Arizona's delegation voted along party lines.

Here are highlights of yesterday's debate, as presented today by C-Span:

The entire debate is embedded after the jump.

Interestingly, the Associated Press inaccurately characterized the vote in the lead paragraph of its initial story. The "House Republicans" were certainly not responsible for defeating the bill, as only 7 of its members voted "nay" and the measure was 44 votes short of gaining the necessary margin.

Here's the entire debate:

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